A memory from the 1980s triggered by a song “If I Were Your Woman“. The original was by Gladys Knight and then Stephanie Mills recorded it at some point. But there was a version by George Michael “If You Were My Woman” that I liked and had bought way back when. When looking for my copy of it, I saw that during the 1980s, I liked usually one song by certain groups/solo artists from Great Britain. Songs…When Smokey Sings by ABC; Shout by Tears for Fears; I Guess that’s Why They Call It The Blues by Elton John; In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins (Well–also Sussidio); Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics; Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me by Elton John and George Michael. (Caveat re: In The Air Tonight–I really only liked the intro and the drums.) Even though Tumbling Dice by the Rolling Stones was recorded in the early 1970s, I didn’t discover it until the 1980s. I bought the cassettes of these singles or I taped these songs from the radio. My one hit wonders!!!
In the 1990s, I discovered Sweet Honey In The Rock, an a cappella group that sang Negro spirituals and work songs. They were awesome. However, at some point, and it had to have been in the 1990s, I listened to the radio, but the music didn’t move me or speak to me and I stopped buying and taping music. Now, I rarely listen to the radio, so I have no clue if there is any music out there that speaks to me. In the last couple of years, I did buy a song by a Grammy winning artist, but it was a political purchase. She is Black, lived in Tennessee, and the racists legislature in Tennessee refused to honor her while honoring some white musician. Eve was Black by Allison Russell. I think I read somewhere that Allison Russell was originally from Canada and there is a verse of the song in French. I listen to it occasionally, but it is not a danceable song. I like songs that make me want to move–songs I walk too, garden to, wash dishes to, clean house to–songs that make the time fly by while working or exercising. Probably why I don’t listen to Sweet Honey In The Rock’s music like I used to.
…
My peace lily is dying. It may be at the end of its life cycle as it is over ten years old. I have repotted it and maybe it will revive. This is January and the days are unseasonably warm. I have set the peace lily outside in the sun. I’ll bring it in tonight after I figure out another place for it. It has been on the “coffee” table since I got it, but it needs to be somewhere else that receives indirect sunlight most of the time and a bit of direct sunlight.
There is nothing normal about this time that i now. How long can we pretend that Super Bowls, soccer matches, Olympics matter when this country is imploding and the world we live in is rife with war and distressed unrest? How can someone care about overpaid athletes fighting pretend wars to distract the hoi polloi? Why is the white supremacists who control the Tennessee legislature so concerned about drag shows? These white Christian male supremacists won’t feed the hungry children during the summer months, but have much energy to denounce drag shows that no one is forced to attend?
Mind Doodle–I read somewhere that these melanin lacking humans that scourged the earth after the earth warmed enough to free them from their ice caves would sacrifice children and women to their volcanic and thunder gods. That was one of the reasons for their pillaging rapaciousness–the lack of females. Now that these non-melanated humans are in full regression, it is apparent that using children and women to satisfy their basest urges and disposing of them when they are used up is back on the table–sacrifices to their god–Greed. Their barbarism which was not well hidden beneath a thin veneer of lies is now evident. End Mind Doodle.
I buy books from libraries, used book stores, antique stores, on line. Sometimes, I read them–most often. Sometimes, I don’t. The other day, I was searching for a particular book that I know I bought and noticed a book that I did not recognize as one that I had read. The book, Symbols, Status, and Personality by S. I. Hayakawa was one I probably bought when I was interested in psycho-linguistics which was a long, long time ago. It’s a short book, so I read it. What is it about other minority groups in this country when it comes to writing about Black people? (Hayakawa was an immigrant from Canada of Japanese ancestry.) I’m to the point where I think they probably shouldn’t. His advice to Black people on how to more productively interact with white people? Forget that one is Black. How does that work out when you are in a room full of whites who have no intention of forgetting that they are white and you are Black?
Another suggestion is that such interactions would act as psychotherapy for whites. Well, what if the whites see no need for psychotherapy? Would not the interaction where one forgets one is Black in order to communicate with them be an exercise in futility? And, why is the burden on Black people to be therapists for white people? And, I certainly don’t see why Black people would need any therapy from white people. We’ve learned enough evil from them. Further, I have seen no evidence that white people want to forget they are white. Today, some sixty years after this book was written, whites are doubling down on their whiteness.
And Hayakawa’s suggestion that Black people study other minorities in the United States is so ludicrous. Why do Black people have to study the machinations of other minorities in this white supremacist country? No study is necessary to understand that most of the other minorities are touting their white adjacency in order to be accepted into the “white” club. By virtue of our melanin, such machinations will not work for Blacks.
Hayakawa worked for a Black newspaper at some point. However, seemingly that experience did not penetrate his inculcation of the propaganda and stereotypes of Blacks contrived by whites. He even agreed with the internment of Japanese-American citizens during WWII because as Americans it was their patriotic duty to be good citizens who did not oppose the government.
And Mr. Hayakawa…Black people have always trained and educated themselves for every position imaginable. Yet, there are many trained and educated Blacks driving taxis (an example as a friend told me of a relative who had a PHD who drove a taxi in the 1940s.). You see, Mr. Hayakawa whites are devious…one Black would be hired in a position and no other and the whites would always point to that one token and smugly say to us…it’s you…see…we hired that one Black person. Whites did it back when you wrote the book and they’re still doing it sixty years later. Yeah, I’m addressing a long dead person as though he were alive!
I read about Hayakawa on Wikipedia. He was a Democrat turned Republican during the Reagan era. Enough said? He was also an English professor and senator from California. White adjacency and apologia were at the root of his writing, especially the book I read. I do realize that the book was written and updated when there was optimism that this country would become more accepting of its many people from countries and cultures from all over the world. (First copyrighted in 1953 and last copyrighted in 1963.) We know now that that optimism was misplaced.
Why would any sane person be a sycophant to a war mongering narcissist who has murdered your countrymen, kidnapped your president and his wife, and lied about your country’s role in drug trafficking? The bully will do what the United States has always done in Central and South America…ru”i”n your country in its rush to steal the resources and impoverish the people before it is again removed, with force, by the people it has harmed. Why betray your people for the lie from the bully that you’re a nice woman? A misogynist said that. What does being a “nice” woman get you? Were you threatened? Was this a voluntary gesture on your part to curry favor? If you’ve ever watched Star Gate, the Goa’uld knew what traitors deserved and no traitor lived to enjoy their betrayal.
…
I was in Kroger looking at the price of canned chicken when I noticed the cans of potted meat. I was surprised that this was still being sold. This was a staple on the days spent fishing when I was young. Potted meat and crackers with some pop/soda/sody pop. One thing about grocery prices–the prices keep going up and the packaging, in many cases, is smaller. Also, there is not as much selection. I looked for canned apricots and there were none to be found. I wonder if it’s the teeny things like looking for a specific item and not finding it that will wake people up to something isn’t right, something isn’t working.
I know…it is the tiny things that can make or break a relationship. Here’s to the tiny things that will wake people up!
I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do. James Baldwin
Copyright 2026. All rights reserved.
